Peter and the Starcatchers

My latest reading voyage was filled with excitement as I tore through Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's book Peter and the Starcatchers. You are going to finish this book in a hurry - I would bet money on it. As a matter of fact, I made a bet on this book a few days ago. One of my students was reading it too, so we made a bet as to who was going to finish it first.

I finished at 11:05pm on Friday night. How'd you do, Seth?

Peter and the Starcatchers is the first of three books (#2 - Peter and the Shadow Thieves, #3 - Peter and the Secret of Rundoon) that tells what happened prior to the Peter Pan story we all know and love. I love the authors' acknowledgement at the beginning: "And above all we thank Paige Pearson, for asking her daddy one night, after her bedtime story, exactly how a flying boy met a certain pirate." I never cease to be amazed at the well from which interesting stories are drawn, and I love the innocent way the idea for this story was planted in the authors' minds.

Without giving too much away, I will tell you that this book has orphans traveling the high seas, pirates chasing the fastest British ship so as to steal a trunk containing the greatest treasure on earth, a brave girl who can speak to mammals other than humans, and mermaids and savages and a beast named Mister Grin.

This is a must-read for boys and girls. If you don't enjoy it, I'll eat my eye-patch. I'm just sorry that I have four more books on ice - if I didn't, I'd have raced to the bookstore this weekend for the two books that follow.